8-member girl group After School recently made their comeback with Bang!, garnering much interest for their novel concept and catchy song. As always with After School, their choreography, which retains power and sex appeal, is considered a high priority among others. However, it has become clear that their comeback song isn't the only thing creating a buzz as the choreography for Bang!--five seconds of it, to be precise--has been accused of choreographic plagiarism. It has drawn the attention of Camillo Lauricella, a dancer and choreographer located in Germany, that a dance number he, along with Nika Kljun, created was stolen. The choreographer himself posted a message via his YouTube account (FYD86) that read,

In February 2010 my good friend Nika Kljun and I made up a choreography together to Blake McGrath's "The Night" and I uploaded it on YouTube. About 5 weeks later I got many messages saying that a Korean girl group called "After School stole some of our moves for their music video of their song "BANG". They release their music video a whole month later......... Nika & me don't know what 2 think... One the one hand it's cool & flattering. But on the other hand....... What do you guys think?

Viewers on YouTube left comments like,

"This is so horrible. true dancers like you work hard at their craft while these losers suck so bad, they have to steal from youtube." "I think they were just very inspired by your guys' movements because it was a really great dance =D" "That is YOUR own choreography and hard work, and they're trying to pass it off as their own! you and Nika should get recognition that you choreographed those moves!! :("

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRr6bqGgMJI Check out the original choreography, in its full glory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb1hxFLIJH8 In the realm of music, copying choreography is as much of a sin as plagiarizing a song. Ultimately, it comes down to respecting other people's creative and intellectual property. Many dancers and novice choreographers may not even realize the severity of stealing routines, but the effect can be detrimental for everyone involved in their party. In this case, After School may not necessarily be the ones to blame for the recycled dance moves as they were merely performing what their choreographers had taught them. Unfortunately, they are the ones associated with the choreographic plagiarism and it is their reputation that will be tarnished. [Thanks to murph for the first tip].